New York state has joined an effort between the MySpace social networking site and 49 attorneys general to improve child safety on the Web.

MySpace, a division of Fox Interactive Media Inc., and attorneys general in the Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking representing 49 states and the District of Columbia, have established a common set of principles related to online safety tools, technology, education and law enforcement cooperation. Texas was the only state not signing off on the new guidelines.

The agreement was announced Monday in New York City. The agreement is broken into four broad categories:

Site design and functionality. As part of a set of new safety features, MySpace pledges to review every image and video uploaded to the site, review the content of groups, make the profiles of 14- and 15-year-old users automatically private and protected from contact by adults they don't already know in the physical world. The company also pledged to delete registered sex offenders from MySpace.com. MySpace will also make 16- and 17-year-old users' profiles default to private and will strengthen the technology that enforces the site's minimum age of 14.

Education and tools for parents, educators and children. MySpace will explore the establishment of a children's e-mail registry that will allow parents to prevent their children from having access to MySpace or any other social networking site. In addition, MySpace pledged to increase its communications with consumers who report a complaint about inappropriate content or activity on the site.

Law enforcement cooperation. The attorneys general cited MySpace's cooperation with law enforcement, which includes a 24-hour hotline, as a model for the industry.

Online safety task force. MySpace will organize, with the support of attorneys general, an industrywide Internet Safety Technical Task Force to develop online safety tools, including a review of identity authentication tools. The task force will explore all new technologies that can help make users more safe and secure including age verification. The task force will include Internet businesses, identity-authentication experts, nonprofit organizations, academics and technology companies.

"This is an industrywide challenge and we must all work together to create a safer Internet," said Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer.

Industries:

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